Microsoft has limited which domains can load Flash contents on Internet Explorer 10 running on Windows RT or Windows 8. The list of domains are actually saved in a “whitelist” in Internet Explorer 10, which tells the browser if the domain you are visiting is allowed to run the plugin or not.

If you are running Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro, then this is not a big issue. You can simply run IE 10 in Desktop mode to overcome the limitation or you can run any alternative browser like Chrome or Firefox, to run Flash on all websites. But, if you are running IE 10 in the new Windows 8 user interface (Metro/Modern UI) or have a Windows tablet with RT (as the Surface, or Asus), where there are no alternative browsers available, only whitelisted domains are allowed to run Flash content.

There are two ways to enable Flash for any website in Internet Explorer 10 Metro Browser running on Windows RT or Windows 8. You can manually edit the “whitelist” file, iecompatdata.xml or use the Windows RT Whitelist Flash Tool to whitelist flash domains.

How to whitelist Flash domain by manually editing iecompatdata.xml file?

XDA Developer Forum user Marvin_S has posted a guide at the forum, which shows, how to manually edit the iecompatdata.xml to whitelist Flash domain.

First you need to disable “Download updated compatibility list from Microsoft” to make sure that IE 10 will not override the custom whitelist back to default on each reboot.

Upon opening the iecompatdata.xml file you will find a list of whitelisted flash enabled websites in the following format:

[...]
<domain>zoosk.com</domain>
<domain>zumi.pl</domain>

To add a website to the whitelist, all you do is add your desired website inside the <domain>type-your-domain-here.com</domain> tags. For example, to whitelist our domain, type <domain>mytechguide.org</domain>.

Finally, you need to delete yourbrowsing history. To delete IE 10’s browsing history, open Internet Options > Delete browsing history. You can also press Ctrl + Shift + Del key to get the Delete browsing history dialog box.

Windows RT Whitelist Flash Tool: Enable Flash In Windows 8 / RT

If you don’t want to go into the hassle of manually editing system files, there’s also a simple batch file released by another XDA Developer’s Forum member, TheDroidKid. The batch file is called Windows RT Whitelist Flash Tool, an excellent tool that allows us to manually whitelist flash domains to the list.

When you double-click on the batch file, you get the following options that you can select from:

Copy custom whitelist and disable the list from being auto updated

Copy the default whitelist and enable the list from being auto updated

Add a website to your whitelist

Exit

Windows RT Whitelist Flash Tool shows a simple list of options. The first option lets you load a custom whitelist of domains and disable the list from being auto updated. The second option restores the default official list and re-enables auto update, the third option lets you add a website to your whitelist. So, to add a domain to the list, press 3 and then Enter. Simply, paste the domain name without http or www and then press Enter. For example, to add our website, type mytechguide.org and press Enter. To exit, press 4 and then press Enter.

Finally, as in the above process, you need to delete IE 10’s browsing history. To delete IE 10’s browsing history, open Internet Options > Delete browsing history. You can also press Ctrl + Shift + Del key to get the Delete browsing history dialog box.

Despite the name of the tool (Windows RT Whitelist Flash Tool), the tool works on both Windows RT and Windows 8. You can download the latest version of Windows RT Whitelist Flash Tool from the thread at XDA Developer’s Forum.